You’re wandering through the Commonwealth, minding your own business, when a pack of Feral Ghouls decides you look like lunch. It’s stressful. You’ve got a bolt-action rifle that takes three years to chamber a round and a 10mm pistol that feels like you’re throwing pebbles at a brick wall. This is exactly why Spray and Pray Fallout 4 players hunt down a specific wandering merchant named Cricket. It’s not just a gun. Honestly, it’s a delete button for anything standing in your way.
Most unique weapons in Bethesda games are gimmicks. They have a cool name but end up gathering dust in a chest at Sanctuary Hills because their stats just don't keep up with late-game scaling. This submachine gun is the exception. It’s a Thompson M1 submachine gun—the "Tommy Gun"—chambered in .45 caliber, but it carries the Explosive legendary effect. That means every single bullet that leaves the barrel does 15 points of area-of-effect explosive damage. It sounds small. In practice, it's a nightmare for anything with limbs.
Where the Heck is Cricket?
Finding the weapon is the first hurdle. Unlike the Overseer’s Guardian, which sits comfortably in a static vault, the Spray and Pray Fallout 4 community knows that getting this gun requires a bit of luck and a lot of waiting. You need Cricket. She’s a manic, chem-addled traveling merchant who looks like she hasn’t slept since the Great War.
She moves. A lot. You’ll usually find her leaning against the wall outside Diamond City, but she also sets up shop in front of Vault 81 or near Warwick Homestead. If you’re desperate, Bunker Hill is your best bet since she's one of the caravaners who frequent the central trade hub. Bring caps. A lot of them. Depending on your Charisma and whether you’ve popped some Grape Mentats, she’ll sell it for anywhere between 2,000 and 3,000 caps. It’s the best investment you’ll ever make in the wasteland.
The Math Behind the Mayhem
Let's get technical for a second because people often misunderstand why this gun is so broken. The base damage of a submachine gun in Fallout 4 is actually pretty pathetic. It’s one of the weakest weapon classes in the game. But the Explosive prefix doesn't care about the base damage of the bullet.
When you fire a round from the Spray and Pray Fallout 4 variant, the 15 points of explosive damage is added to the impact. If you have the Demolition Expert perk, that explosive damage doubles to 30. Then you factor in the Commando perk, which increases the automatic weapon damage. Suddenly, you aren't just shooting bullets; you’re firing high-speed miniature grenades.
Because it’s an area-of-effect (AOE) weapon, you don't even need to be accurate. Aiming is for people who don't have enough ammo. If a Bloodbug is buzzing around your head and you can't hit it, just shoot the ground near it. The splash damage will knock it out of the sky. This is particularly effective against Mirelurks. Their shells are essentially invincible to standard bullets, but the explosions from this gun hit their soft undersides regardless of where the bullet actually impacts.
Why Your Armor Matters (And Your Friends)
There is a massive downside. You will kill yourself. Frequently.
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If a Radroach jumps in your face and you panic-fire, the explosive splash damage will hit you too. I’ve seen countless players blow their own legs off because a companion walked in front of their barrel. Speaking of companions, they will hate you. If you’re traveling with Piper or Nick Valentine and you start spraying a crowd, the AOE damage will likely hit them, turning them "downed" or making them temporarily hostile if you're playing on certain difficulty mods.
To mitigate this, you absolutely must invest in the Padded or Dense armor mods. These reduce incoming explosive damage. Without them, using Spray and Pray Fallout 4 style is basically a suicide pact.
The Best Mods for Total Domination
Once you get the gun to a workbench, you’ve got choices to make. Most people think they should maximize range. Don't. This isn't a sniper rifle. The recoil on a submachine gun is atrocious, and trying to use it at long range just wastes expensive .45 ammo.
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- Receiver: Go for the Powerful Receiver or the Hardened Piercing Receiver if you’re fighting armored targets like Brotherhood of Steel Knights.
- Barrel: The Short Vented Barrel is actually surprisingly good for hip-fire, which is how you’ll use this gun 90% of the time.
- Stock: The Recoil Compensating Stock is mandatory. Without it, the gun kicks like a mule.
- Magazine: Large Quick Eject Drum. You want 100 rounds in the mag. Anything less feels like you're constantly reloading when you should be raining fire.
- Muzzle: Skip the suppressor. It reduces your range too much and honestly, if you’re using an explosive machine gun, "stealth" isn't really on the menu. Go for a Compensator to keep that muzzle climb under control.
Legendary Comparisons: Spray and Pray vs. The Rest
A lot of veterans will argue that the Kiloton Radium Rifle from the Far Harbor DLC is better. They aren't wrong, technically. The Kiloton does ballistic, explosive, and radiation damage. It’s objectively a more powerful base weapon.
However, the Radium Rifle uses .45 ammo, which is the same as our submachine gun, but it has a much slower fire rate. The beauty of Spray and Pray Fallout 4 gameplay is the sheer volume of lead you put downrange. The Explosive effect triggers per shot. Therefore, the faster you fire, the more explosions you create. The Submachine gun has a higher ceiling for "proccing" that explosive damage rapidly.
Then there’s the Overseer’s Guardian. It’s a Two-Shot Combat Rifle. It’s precise. It’s efficient. It’s boring. The Guardian is a surgeon's tool; the Spray and Pray is a sledgehammer. One requires you to aim for headshots, the other lets you turn a whole room of Raiders into red paste while you're backpedaling in a panic.
Survival Mode Reality Check
In Survival Mode, the Spray and Pray Fallout 4 experience changes drastically. Weight is a huge factor. .45 ammunition isn't heavy on its own, but when you’re carrying 1,000 rounds because the gun eats through them like candy, it adds up.
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Also, the "self-damage" issue becomes a run-ender. In standard play, blowing yourself up is a minor annoyance. In Survival, where you haven't slept in an hour and you lose all that progress because you shot a railing too close to your face? It’s soul-crushing. If you’re running a Survival build, you have to be disciplined. You use this gun for open fields and boss fights, not for clearing tight corridors in a subway station.
Actionable Tips for New Owners
If you just bought this from Cricket, follow these steps to make sure you don't waste your caps:
- Perk Priority: Stop putting points into Luck or Charisma for a second. Get Demolition Expert to level 2 immediately. Your damage will skyrocket.
- Ammo Hoarding: Start buying .45 rounds from every vendor you see. Arturo in Diamond City and KL-E-0 in Goodneighbor usually have deep stocks. You will burn through 200 rounds in a single encounter with a Behemoth.
- VATS is Your Enemy: This gun is terrible in VATS. The explosive effect sometimes bug out or misses the "sweet spot" for splash damage. Fire from the hip or use the iron sights.
- Aim for the Feet: This is the pro tip. Don't aim for the head. If you miss the head, the bullet flies into the sky and the explosion is wasted. If you aim for the feet and miss the hit-box, the bullet hits the ground and the explosion still damages the target’s legs. Crippling a Deathclaw’s legs is the easiest way to win a fight.
The Spray and Pray Fallout 4 weapon remains a legend for a reason. It’s accessible early, scales incredibly well with perks, and makes the game's most annoying enemies trivial. Just watch where you're pointing that thing when Codsworth is nearby.